Just As It Should Be
by thelittleturtleduck
Summary: After the Yakone Trial, Katara gets word of the events that took place that afternoon involving her friend, her brother, and her husband. She visits the police station, in order to get the whole story from the victims themselves, one in particular.


A/N: I'm on a role with posting these oneshots. Here's one that I have been tossing around in my head for awhile. I try really hard in all my stories to keep characters as in character as I can, so please review and tell me what you think. Check out my other two family oneshots, "You Never Change" and "Maybe They Were Right".

Disclaimer: I don't own "Avatar: The Last Airbender" or "The Legend Of Korra".

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She had heard about what had happened in the trial today, everyone in the city had. An Air Acolyte ran into the kitchen, frantically telling her of what occurence had unfolded, what her husband and friends had to deal with, and it made her sick to her stomach.

She ran up the cold, stone steps, her sandals clanking on the hard surface, hair tied back with her familiar loopies in the front, but hanging down in messy waves on her back. A light coat was wrapped around her body to protect her from the slight chill of fall, and a small, bald child gripped her hand worriedly on one side, with two other children following closely behind.

She swung the door of the station open quickly, causing a few metalbending officers to give her a weary look until they recognized who she was, then they began to scatter out of the way of the powerful waterbender.

Blue eyes scanned the lobby coldly, before they landed on the information desk, occupied by a short, chubby older man with round, red glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose as he swiftly sipped on a steaming cup of tea.

"Where is he?"

The man, who hadn't been paying attention up until now, nearly dropped the tea cup out of his hand as his dark, brown eyes met those of the frantic woman in front of him. He cleared his throat before setting his tea on his desk, grabbing a few files laying haphazardly there and attempting to order them properly, looking boredly up at the visitor.

"My dear, it would be helpful if you told me whom you are referring to."

The woman glared at him, placing her free tanned hand on the desk in front of her, grabbing the edge and squeezing it tightly to refrain herself from waterbending that tea right back up his throat. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself as she answered in a tight voice, "Avatar Aang".

The man's eyes peered at her over the rims of his glasses, as he gave her the most dubious of looks, "I have had reporters trying to get in to see the man all day, you're no different, sweetheart. You will not be getting back to see the Avatar."

Katara opened her mouth, shocked at the rudeness of the man and was about to completely explode when Bumi pushed passed his mother, spikey hair bouncing as he gave the man a harsh look, "You telling me I can't see my father? Do you have a sudden death wish, because I have my trusty boomerang right here and I may not know how to properly use it, but I can do some damage with it! Right Kya?"

His sister stepped up to the desk with him and nodded her head affirmatively, dark brown ponytails bobbing up and down, her lips in a grim line, "Yeah! And I have the scar to prove it!"

The man looked at the children curiously, before bursting out laughing and leaning back in his chair, feet up on his desk, "Like I haven't heard this story today either. You really are pretty desperate though, ma'am, to drag children into your silly game."

Katara grasped both of her bold children's shoulders, releasing Tenzin's tiny palm, now turning completely red in the face from the nerve of this man to insult her babies, when a loud door to their right clanked open.

Toph Bei Fong, Chief of Police, stepped through the opening, both hands behind her back and an almost amused expression resting on her face. Grey eyes stared blankly ahead, her face held a certain air of authority, that caused her to be oddly intimidating, though she was small in stature in her metal uniform.

"I could feel your vibrations all the way down the hall, Sugar Queen."

The waterbender's children quickly shook off their mother's grip as they ran to one of their favorite "aunts", each momentarily forgetting the events that had transpired today. Katara glared once more at the now surprised man as she walked over to her long time friend, a stern expression still on her face.

"Toph, are you alright? I heard about the trial today."

The chief slightly shook her head, as she patted the heads of the children on both of her sides, "Sugar Queen, you don't need to be worrying about me, I can handle myself."

Katara angrily pulled her tan jacket around herself a little tighter, huffing as she crossed her arms defiantly across her chest, "Oh trust me Toph, we are all aware of that by now."

The metalbending master gave her a cheeky smile before turning to the man sitting at the reception desk, now sinking lower and lower down into his chair as he realized the mistake of his earlier accusations, "You're fired by the way."

With that, the chief walked back towards the door in which she had entered from, waving a hand behind her for the Avatar's family to follow. The children looked at eachother, worried once again of the well being of their father, as their mother ushered them in front of her, shuffling behind them anxiously.

"Toph, what exactly happened with Yakone after he escaped from the trial? No one is telling me anything, and I don't think they really know for themselves," Katara's voice was low as she watched her children closely in front of her, as they passed rows and rows of barred criminals, bearing their teeth at the sight of them and walking closer to the bars of their prison cells.

"I think your husband would probably rather explain that to you, he was the one who captured Yakone in the end," Katara's eyebrows slanted up in slight confusion, looking at Toph questioningly in the dim light, slighty scrunching her nose up at the disgusting smell of sweat that met it.

"But how could Aang stop a bloodbender? He doesn't even know how to bloodbend," The Avatar's wife dropped her voice at this, a bit ashamed of the fact that she had never bothered to teach her husband the advanced technique.

Bumi interrupted then, his nose plugged by his tanned fingers causing his voice to sound strained, "Man, these people all stink!"

"Bumi!"

He shrugged up at his mother, "Well it's the truth! Atleast I'm honest!"

Katara shook her head incrediously, mentally setting a reminder for herself to share with Aang they would probably need extra security around the island as Bumi became bolder and bolder with age.

Toph, ignoring the interruption, stopped them in front of a metal door, sending Katara a grim smirk, "Well it really isn't his fault he doesn't know it, you outlawed it! Teaching him how would have led to your own arrest, Sugar Queen."

Before Katara could reply, Toph had opened the door that led to a chamber where many of the council members stood, talking quietly as they rubbed their sore limbs from the events of that day, each wore a calculating expression on their face.

In the corner of the room, a man with arrow tattoos sat with his elbow propped up on his knee, his red and orange robes covered with a thin layer of dirt, showing signs of a struggle. His eyes held a certain exhaustion, most had only seen in them once in his lifetime, as his other hand stroked his dark beard thoughtfully, mouth set in a thin line as he conversed with a man in Water Tribe robes.

Kya was the first to react, dark blue robes flying behind her as she ran across the room yelling, "Daddy!"

Aang looked up tiredly, though his face visibly brightened as he took in the image of his daughter running up to him. A familiar goofy smile lit up his face as he opened his arms in invitation, and she practically fell into them.

The council members had stopped their chatter to look on at the Avatar and his only daughter, smiling slightly at the reunion in front of them, but wincing at the thought of how much pain Aang must be in from his child hugging him so tightly.

"Dad! We heard you beat someone up!" Bumi ran over to his father, who looked weary from the soreness of his body and also from his son's comment, "That's so cool! I mean most kids complain about how their Dad's are so old and can't do anything, but not my old man! No, my old man can beat up someone that has freaky bending powers."

Tenzin walked over to his older brother, giving him an exasperated look, "You obviously forget quite often that your father is the Avatar, and posses bending powers."

Bumi looked at the boy with a bored expression on his face, "Dad's aren't freaky, their awesome!"

Aang rolled his eyes at the conversation, but grabbed both of his sons within the hug that his daughter still neglected to break, "I'm just glad you all stayed safe" he whispered to them, closing his eyes tightly, trying to hold back all the emotions that had filled him today.

"I wish we could say the same for you."

Aang looked up at the woman in front of him, standing with her hands on her hips, eyes worriedly observing her husband as he gently released his children from his embrace, standing up to his full height to where he towered a few inches above his wife.

"I'm fine," He whispered calmly to her, holding up his hands in a sign of all is well. The woman though sighed, looking around her before gently pulling her husband by the wrist and into the hall, Sokka shared a look with the man before the door was closed behind him.

"Mother worries a lot, doesn't she Uncle Sokka?" Tenzin asked his uncle as he pulled gently at the man's robes, causing him to look down at the small child wrapped in Air Nomad clothing.

He pet his nephew's shiny head comfortingly and gave him a slight smile, "Yeah, for an optimist, she sure has a lot of worries."

Outside in the hall, Katara leaned against the wall as her husband looked down into her anxious blue eyes, "Aang, how did you do it?"

He looked down at his feet for a second before turning and looking down the dimly lit hall, his hand shaking slightly as it rubbed the back of his neck, "I went into the Avatar State," the answer was so simple, yet Katara let out a slight gasp at the severity of the action.

"What made you go into the Avatar State? Toph told me you had been the one to catch Yakone, but I guess I assumed you had done that with your normal bending. Aang, what did Yakone do that caused you to go to such extremes?"

The Avatar, still looking at his feet, let out a shaky sigh, nearly terrfied of his wife's reaction to what he was about to say.

"He was trying to kill me. Yakone was using his bloodbending to constrict me."

Katara stood stunned, her eyes wide and mouth hanging open in disbelief, her cheeks slowly turning red with rage. She then clamped her lips shut and clenched her fist tightly at her sides, eyebrows scrunching up menacingly as she stared up at her husband, seething as she hissed her question, "Where is he now?"

Aang opened his mouth to answer but she quickly placed a tanned finger in front of it, "None of that all life is equal stuff, he needs to be taught a lesson, and I'm sure about to teach him one he will never forget!" Aang took a step back from his wife, grasping her shoulders knowing well that she was not afraid of going through with her threat.

"Katara, he doesn't have his bending anymore. I took it away."

She looked up at him, still furious until she saw the exhausted look on his chisled face, her face than softened as she brought her hand up to cup his cheek gently, thumb grazing the dark circles under his eye, "I see you have taken the liberty of teaching him a lesson before I could."

Aang smiled a bit at that and nodded before frowning even more deeply, his eyes going from a bright shade of grey to a dark, stormy shade, the light casting intimidating shadows on his face, "I had to. He hurt all those innocent people, I couldn't let him get away with the crimes he had committed."

Katara looked worriedly up at her husband, before nodding her head sympathetically and sliding her hand to his muscular shoulder, "I know this is hard for you, even though he caused so much trouble, I know you feel you are acting too harshly."

Aang didn't respond for a second, looking down the dark hall again, before looking back into his wife's bright, blue eyes, "Not this time, Katara. When he escaped, my first thoughts flew to you and the children, I was imagining if he had gotten his hands on my family and that in the end was what brought me into the Avatar State, because I knew he would stoop low enough to harm you and the kids."

Katara let this seep in before she nodded once again, understanding the way her husband's thought process had played out, "Even though I know how to defend myself from a bloodbender, I'm still glad I have my powerful bending looking out for me and our children."

Aang laughed a bit at the reference to her fortune, flicking a hair loppy of her's playfully and taking her chin into his palm. "As long as I always have my forever girl to protect, I will be her powerful bender."

Katara groaned slightly, "You always have to bring up that ridiculous daydream," she giggled though a bit at her husband's humor.

"You always have to bring up that ridiculous fortune!"

"It came true didn't it?"

Aang laughed tiredly at his wife, slipping his hand from her chin to her warm, open palm, "Well who's to say my daydream didn't come true?"

Katara rolled her eyes, the two standing in front of the door to the room in which the council stood, and their children surely were causing trouble in, "Aang, I don't believe we have ever been standing on the edge of a cliff where you spontaneously grabbed me within your arms while dipping me back smoothly and admitting your love."

Aang looked at her, eyebrows raised in challenge, "Oh, you never know, it could happen."

The two shared a laugh and a warm embrace, ignoring the events of the day and just enjoying being together, just as it should be.


End file.
